Wireless networks are employed to facilitate the communication between computers and other electronic devices. Digitally modulated signals like binary phase shift keying (BPSK) or quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signals are transmitted between the various network nodes. Examples include satellite communications networks where terminals transmit through satellite transponders, terrestrial elements where terminals transmit through repeating towers and indoor local area networks where terminals transmit through central repeating elements or hubs. In each instance digital data is exchanged through wireless transmission with some control over the communications. The computer elements connected to these networks provide a variety of user services. Examples include telephone traffic with digital voice encoding, video conferencing, wide area computer network connectivity, and Internet service.
A variety of schemes exist for efficiently partitioning the network elements into communication channels. Frequency domain multiple access (FDMA) schemes assign each terminal to a separate, non-overlapping frequency band. Time domain multiple access (TDMA) schemes assign each terminal to a separate non-overlapping time slot. Code division multiple access (CDMA) schemes assign each terminal to a separate modulating waveform so that the cross correlation between each terminal is negligible. Each of these schemes is inefficient in the sense that, given sufficient signal to noise strength or coding redundancy, more communicators could use the allocated bandwidth if a means for detecting the excess signal margin and means for demodulating signals in the presence of interference was provided.
For instance, FDMA refers to a communication channel wherein a signal's transmission power is concentrated into a single radio frequency band. Interference from adjacent channels is limited by the use of band pass filters. However, for each channel being assigned a different frequency, system capacity is limited by the available frequencies and by limitations imposed by channel reuse. In TDMA systems, a channel consists of a time slot or frame in a periodic train of time intervals over the same frequency, with a given signal's energy confined to one of these time slots. Adjacent channel interference is limited by the use of a time gate or other synchronization element that only passes signal energy received at the proper time. However, the system capacity is limited by the available time slots as well as by limitations imposed by channel reuse, as each channel is assigned a different time slot.
One of the goals of FDMA and TDMA systems is to try and prevent two potentially interfering signals from occupying the same frequency at the same time. In contrast, CDMA techniques allow signals to overlap in both time and frequency. CDMA signals share the same frequency spectrum and in the frequency or time domain, the CDMA signals appear to overlap one another. The use of CDMA greatly increases the capacity compared to non-overlapped TDMA/FDMA systems and permits superior voice transmissions with a high bit rate decoder. CDMA also provides for variable data rates allowing many different grades of voice quality to be offered. Finally, the scrambled signal format of CDMA eliminates cross talk and makes it more difficult to eavesdrop or monitor calls therefore providing greater security.
In a CDMA system, each signal is transmitted using spread spectrum techniques. The transmitted informational data stream is impressed upon a much higher rate data stream termed a signature sequence. The bit stream of the signature sequence data is typically binary, and can be generated using a pseudo-noise process that appears random, but can be replicated by an authorized receiver. The informational data stream and the high bit rate signature sequence stream are combined by multiplying the two bit streams together, assuming the binary values of the two bit streams are represented by +1 or −1. This combination of the higher bit rate signature signal with the lower bit rate data stream is called spreading the informational data stream signal. Each informational data stream or channel is allocated a unique signature sequence.
In operation, a plurality of spread information signals, such as BPSK or QPSK signals, modulate a radio frequency (RF) carrier and are jointly received as a composite signal at the receiver. Each of the spread signals overlaps all of the other spread signals, as well as noise-related signals, in both frequency and time. The receiver correlates the composite signal with one of the unique signature sequences, and the corresponding information signal is isolated and despread.
A multiuser receiver would further improve signal density by permitting multiple communicators to share the same FDMA, TDMA, CDMA or other channel in cases where benign propagation conditions provide sufficient signal-to-noise margin. When margin exists, a functional multiuser receiver will successfully demodulate the desired transmitter in the presence of interfering transmitters sharing the same channel. There have been attempts at multiuser receivers, however these also have general deficiencies. One multiuser approach demodulates all user signals in an initial stage and forms an interference replica for each user. In subsequent processing all interference replicas except for the desired signal are subtracted from an input signal received to remove the interference. In the following stage, demodulation is made again about the desired signal by using a signal obtained by the initial stage. As a result, the user signal quality is improved as compared with the initial stage, and it is readily apparent that interference cancellation characteristic is gradually improved by repeating this process several times with a multistage structure. Another receiver employs a serial structure for canceling interference. When performing interference cancellation at each stage, the interference replica is transferred between stages and the interference replica is stored in memory. The deficiency here is that signals must have substantially different amplitudes for successive cancellation to be feasible. Since interfering amplitudes are arbitrary, this circumstance rarely occurs. Moreover, successive interference cancellation tends to distort the residual signal, and at some point, the cancellation process renders the signal of interest unrecoverable.
What is needed, therefore, is a bandwidth efficient wireless network modem capable of exploiting the channel densities possible with multiuser receivers. In a more general sense, there is a need for a wireless digital signal demodulator/modulator for wireless networks where efficient use of allocated frequency bandwidth is desirable.